In this 1999 photo, Gary Cowan is shown with his trusted putter next to a painting by his son depicting his glory days on the amateur golf tour at his home in Waterloo, Ont.David Bebee/The Canadian Press
There are many reasons to celebrate Gary Cowan, but it's particularly relevant to do so today, as the Kitchener, Ont. golfer turns 75. Cowan did it all in amateur golf. He won the 1961 Canadian Amateur, and the 1966 and 1971 U.S. Amateurs. He represented Canada internationally 19 times, as the Canadian Golf Hall of Fame, of which Cowan is a member, tweeted today.
Cowan's win at the 1971 U.S. Amateur was not without some drama, nor did it lack evidence of his determination in the face of USGA officialdom. Cowan took a one-shot lead over Eddie Pearce to the last hole at the Wilmington (Delaware) Country Club. He'd driven into the left rough but had an opening between trees. Cowan wasn't sure how he stood. He wanted to check the scoreboard up by the green, and asked USGA President Phil Strubing for permission to walk ahead.
Strubing said no. Cowan then holed a 9-iron for a closing eagle. The guy was a bull. He was going to do things his way. Moe Norman used to say that his favourite song was Frank Sinatra's "My Way." Cowan also did it his way. Here's Sports Illustrated's piece on his 1971 U.S. Amateur win.
And here's an amazing piece of golf trivia, except that it's not trivial considering what it means. Cowan shot 60 when he was 60. Maybe other golfers have done the same, but I don't know of them. Think about it: 60 at 60. That's shooting your age to the max, isn't it?
Now Cowan is 15 years older. He played the Magna Golf Club in Aurora, Ont. recently with his close pal Steve Kaszas, a member there who works for BMO Nesbitt Burns in Toronto. He's member 001, as he told me when we spoke this morning. He also belongs to Donalda in Toronto, the Port Carling club in Ontario cottage country, and Atlantis Country Club in Lake Worth, Fla. Cowan shot his age at Magna.
"He's in remarkably good spirits," Kaszas told me. "I love the guy. He calls me his little brother."
I've played a number of games with Cowan. Most recently, I played with him the day the Toronto Golf Club closed its course for a restoration, and the day it reopened. Cowan was past 70, and he could still really play. He's always had a short backswing, a la Doug Sanders, and his tempo has always been Nick Price quick. Every so often you'd hear a supposedly knowledgeable golf observer criticize his swing. But the most perceptive comment I ever heard was that Cowan's swing was so fast and so tight that there was little time for anything to go wrong.
I knew of Cowan long before I played the 1971 Ontario Amateur at the Lambton Golf and Country Club in Toronto. The 17th hole then, before Rees Jones' recent renovation stripped the course of the hole, was strong, banked on both side by woods. It was a thread the needle hole, especially on the drive. I watched Cowan after I was finished the last round. He drove on a rope line down the 17th fairway and went on to win the tournament. The golf ball curved a lot more in those days then now. But it curved only when Cowan wanted it to.
Cowan did what he wanted to do with the golf ball, and at critical times in major tournaments. I'm sure all Canadian golfers, and golfers elsewhere who are aware of his accomplishments, would join me in wishing Cowan a happy 75th birthday.
RELATED LINK: More blogs from Lorne Rubenstein
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Lorne Rubenstein has written a golf column for The Globe and Mail since 1980. He has played golf since the early 1960s and was the Royal Canadian Golf Association's first curator of its museum and library at the Glen Abbey Golf Club in Oakville, Ontario and the first editor of Score, Canada's Golf Magazine, where he continues to write a column and features. He has won four first-place awards from the Golf Writers Association of America, one National Magazine Award in Canada, and he won the award for the best feature in 2009 from the Golf Journalists Association of Canada. Lorne has written 12 books, including Mike Weir: The Road to the Masters (2003); A Disorderly Compendium of Golf, with Jeff Neuman (2006); This Round's on Me (2009); and the latest Moe & Me: Encounters with Moe Norman, Golf's Mysterious Genius (2012). He is a member of the Ontario Golf Hall of Fame and the Canadian Golf Hall of Fame. Lorne can be reached at lornerubenstein@me.com. You can now follow him on Twitter @lornerubenstein